Believe in Yourself
Like many of our English words, the word confidence comes from the Latin. Con means with and fidere means to believe in. So, when we have confidence we go out into the world with belief in ourselves. Like we said last week, preschoolers believe in themselves. As parents, we have had the opportunity, or will have the opportunity, to watch this fearlessness slowly melt away and, in most situations, disappear altogether. Our job as parents is to be the continual boost of confidence along that journey.
Learning Opportunities
We also have the opportunity to help our children retain most of that confidence they enjoyed as a very young child. We have the opportunity to teach our children to go out into their world with a belief in themselves. Yes, there will be times they will “fail” according to society’s standards and measures, but getting a bad grade, striking out, not making the team, not being chosen for this or for that, never means failure. In those times, we can help our children realize these times are nothing less than opportunities to grow, to try harder or maybe to look into a new direction.
Re-teach Ourselves
All of these lessons we teach our children are lessons we sometimes have to re-teach ourselves. Why not go out into the world with the attitude that we too can dance and sing, run and jump, that we can do anything? We may not look or sound professional, we may not do it perfectly, we may not win a trophy, but we can use the fullness of our ability to succeed with a fearless belief in ourselves.
Love the summer sunshine!
Wishing you all GOOD things,
Sandy
